A Note on Ethnicity and Ethnic Groups in Iran

Abstract

Even a brief review of the history of Iran clearly indicates that the country has always been the host of diverse ethnic groups during the past four millennia.' Hence, any generalisation concerning the Iranian society and culture is unsatisfactory unless the ethnicity is taken into consideration. Yet, surprisingly, the knowledge about the ethnicity and ethnic groups in Iran remains incomplete and demands clarification. There were no national censuses indicating the population types, geographical distribution, political, socio-economic, and linguistic situations in various ethnic environments in Iran. The lack of relevant information on the ethnic groups has led to incorrect assumptions about the nature of ethnicity and ethnic composition in Iran. For instance, while the total number of the Turkic-speaking groups in Iran, according to our estimations, does not exceed 9 millions,2 almost half of the population of the country (30 millions) are usually considered to be Turks. Furthermore, some scholars, mechanically identifying the speakers of Persian as a distinct ethnic unit (the 'Persians'), exclude those Iranians who speak dialects of Persian, or other Iranian dialects closely related to Persian.3 On the other hand, the Persian-speaking non-Iranian ethnic groups (such as, for instance, Arabs) are numbered as Persians. However, it is obvious that this approach to ethnicity in Iran is misleading, as historically all ethnic groups in Iran, including the 'Persians', irrespective of their origin, language, or religion were always referred to, collectively, as Iranians (Irani). Anyway, with the lack of precise demographical data, the groups of Iranian origin can be estimated around 85 percent of the population of Iran.